


You Can't Marry a Boy

by protectoroffaeries



Category: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
Genre: AU, Elementary School, First Kiss, M/M, feel free to look at this as the same universe as the high school au series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-04
Updated: 2016-07-04
Packaged: 2018-07-20 01:41:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7385815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/protectoroffaeries/pseuds/protectoroffaeries
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>China tries to tell people who they can and can't like. Saracen doesn't listen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Can't Marry a Boy

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by the group of loud children sitting behind me at dinner the other night. They were playing truth or dare, and every dare was basically a dare to kiss someone of the opposite sex. And then one of them shouted out a dare for one of them to kiss a member of the same sex, and voilà, the title of this work was shouted by a seven year old.
> 
> They got into an argument about it. It was interesting to listen to. 
> 
> Anyway, those kids couldn't have been but about seven or eight, so I suppose you could imagine the characters in this fic as that age.
> 
> Happy Fourth of July/Monday depending on your nationality!
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't have much experience writing children or China Sorrows. You have been warned.
> 
> PS: Feel free to drop me a comment! I loveee comments.

“Which girl do you want to kiss?”

Saracen liked girls. They were funny and smart. The ones he was friends with, anyway. Maybe he'd even want to kiss one, someday, like his dad kissed his mom. 

Bur if Saracen had to pick a person to kiss now, it wouldn't be one of the girls. It’d be Dexter.

Dexter was one of Saracen’s friends, too, but he was a boy. Saracen thought he was prettier than any of the girls in their class. Prettier than any of the girls in the school, even.

Saracen wasn't sure what made Dexter so pretty. He didn't wear dresses or pin his hair up. He usually wore plain shirts and shorts and tennis shoes that weren't really brightly colored or flashy. 

Saracen considered that Dexter could possibly have one of those “pretty personalities” that Saracen’s mom told him about when she explained that he shouldn't be mean to people just based on how they looked. Dexter was nice - he always shared his snack. He also let Saracen play with him every recess, though he never talked much. 

Saracen didn't know why Dexter was so shy. It wasn't like Saracen was a stranger or an adult or the teacher.

“Hello? Which girl do you want to kiss?” demanded the girl in front of him, the cool new girl, China. She'd taken over the playground on her first day, and she'd invited Saracen over for the first time. 

Saracen had been a little skeptical - he didn't want to leave Dexter. But he'd decided Dexter wouldn't miss him much, since Dexter rarely talked to him anyway. 

“What if he doesn't want to kiss any girls?” Tanith, the other kid who'd been invited to play with China today, asked.

China rolled her eyes in an exaggerated fashion. “All boys want to kiss some girl or another.”

Saracen didn't like the sound of that. “I don't.”

“Yes, you do,” insisted China. 

“I want to kiss Aurora Jane,” Tanith declared, and Saracen and China both turned to stare at her.

“No, you want to kiss some boy,” China said after a moment of silence. “Because you're a girl.”

Tanith seemed to consider this. Saracen was eager to hear her answer. Maybe it wasn't so weird that he thought Dexter was pretty after all.

“Maybe I'd kiss Frightening, too,” Tanith admitted. “But I like Aurora more. Plus, she has cherry flavored chapstick.”

Saracen nodded in understanding. He liked cherry flavored chapstick, too.

China frowned, however. “You can't want to kiss a boy and a girl. We'll just say you want to kiss Frightening.”

Tanith gave her a funny look, and Saracen got the feeling that Tanith didn't like China’s decision to disregard part of what she'd said.

China either didn't notice the look or ignored it, and directed her icy gaze to Saracen. “Now you have to answer.”

Saracen hesitated, then said, “It’s not a girl.”

“See?” said Tanith, thrusting her hand in Saracen’s direction as if his words proved her point perfectly.

“He's the only person I'd kiss,” Saracen told China, but she was rolling her eyes again.

“You can't marry a boy, Saracen,” she snapped, “so why would you waste time kissing him?”

“You can marry a boy in Vermont,” Tanith disagreed. “My cousin married his husband in Vermont, and he let me be the flower girl at his wedding.”

“We're not in Vermont!” China shouted angrily. “And Saracen’s just saying Dexter because you said Aurora! You ruined it!” 

China shoved Tanith, and she fell into the dirt. Tanith glared at China as she got to her feet again, and then she shoved China back, but twice as hard. Saracen stepped away from both of them. He glanced over at where Dexter was sitting, alone on the stationary merry-go-round, and Saracen wished he was with him.

China got back up, dusted off her shirt, and said, “Saracen! You better go kiss him, or I'm going to tell everyone you and Tanith are big fat weird liars!”

“No!” Tanith screamed, her face bright red with rage.

Saracen looked between Tanith and China, and then sighed. Tanith was like him, and Saracen had to have her back. It was only fair. Plus, Saracen wasn't a liar.

He walked over to where Dexter was sitting. 

“I have to kiss you,” Saracen said as soon as Dexter glanced up to see who was coming.

Dexter blinked from behind his blond bangs. “What?” 

“I have to kiss you or else China is going to spread lies about me and Tanith,” Saracen explained. 

“Okay,” said Dexter. He stood up, so now he was a little taller than Saracen. 

“Um, I've never kissed anyone before,” Saracen leaned forward, pecked Dexter on the cheek, and then quickly stepped back. “Was that bad?”

Dexter put his hand on his cheek. “No. It felt nice.”

“Oh. Cool.” Saracen glanced over at Tanith, who was beaming, and China, who was fuming. 

It was pretty cool.


End file.
